Emphyrio Q5. The Writing

clash_bowley

Vance was a SF Grandmaster, famed for his writing style and background building. What was your experience like reading him?

Apocryphal

I enjoyed it, and I've enjoyed all of Vance's books read so far, except maybe The Languages of Pao. He's certainly a playful and creative writer in addition to being a good prose stylist, though that didn't come out as strongly in this novel as it does in others.

RichardAbbott

I don't remember being especially struck either pro or anti by the prose style, and thinking back then I would probably say it struck me as competent rather than stylish.

BarnerCobblewood

Pretty much the same as @RichardAbbott.

kcaryths

My only quibble (and I mentioned this elsewhere) with his writing is that he always drops these weird words that I never hear used elsewhere. Now, that could very well be because I am not well read enough but with both of his books I found myself fairly regularly looking words up to see what the exact meaning was. Not sure why he feels the need to do that.

Aside from that, I like his writing. I think he writes in such a way that it generally flows well and doesn't make me stop and have to re-read sentences because I didn't get what was being said (a recent book by CJ Cherryh I found was terrible in this regard, the prose slowed me down so much that I felt like stopping most of the time). It's maybe a bit workmanlike for some readers but most of the time that's what I like in a book.

Apocryphal

This point about the vocabulary is generally considered a feature of Vance. Fans love him for his vocabulary. A similar thing can be said for Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, which in many ways was inspired by Vance’s Dying Earth novels.

RichardAbbott

@Apocryphal said:
This point about the vocabulary is generally considered a feature of Vance. Fans love him for his vocabulary. A similar thing can be said for Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, which in many ways was inspired by Vance’s Dying Earth novels.

I seem to remember a conversation while we were reading Gene Wolfe together that Vance tends to see a future that becomes increasingly individualistic, but Wolfe where it becomes increasingly collective and groupish?

Apocryphal

I don’t remember that particular discussion, but I’d say that in Vance’s books, most of the characters try to twist the system to their personal advantage. Clash has read more and comment further.

kcaryths

@Apocryphal said:
This point about the vocabulary is generally considered a feature of Vance. Fans love him for his vocabulary. A similar thing can be said for Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, which in many ways was inspired by Vance’s Dying Earth novels.

I could see how his use of obscure words might be seen as charming or something to people. I mostly just found it annoying. Why use big word when small word do good.

Apocryphal